The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

  A BATTUE OF "BLACK-TAILS."

  "Of course we could do nothing more for our beavers at present. It wasnot our intention to trap any of them until they should become verynumerous, and then we could obtain annually a large number of skins.Their tails, we knew, were very good to eat--in fact, quite a delicacy--but we could not afford to kill one of them merely for the sake ofeating his tail; and the other parts of the beaver's flesh are by nomeans palatable. Besides, we expected to find enough of game withoutthat, as in every part, where the ground was soft, we saw the tracks ofdeer and other animals.

  "By the time we had fairly furnished our house, the flesh of the elk wasbeginning to run short, so that a grand hunting excursion was determinedupon. It was also to be an exploring expedition, as up to this time wehad not visited any part of the valley except that which lay immediatelyaround our house. Frank, Harry, and myself, were to form the party,while Cudjo was to remain by the house, and guard the female portion ofour little community with his great spear.

  "Everything being ready, we started out with our three rifles, and tookthe route up the valley. As we passed along under high trees, we couldsee squirrels upon all sides of us; some of them sitting on theirhind-quarters like little monkeys; some of them cracking nuts; some ofthem barking like toy-dogs; while others, again, leaped about among thebranches. As we advanced upon them, they sprang up the trees, orstreaked off along the ground so swiftly that it seemed more like theflight of a bird than the running of a four-footed animal. On reachinga tree they would gallop up it, generally keeping on the opposite sideto that on which we were, so that they might be secure. Sometimes,however, their curiosity would get the better of their fears, and whenthey had climbed as high as the first or second forking or the branches,they would stop there and gaze down upon us, all the while flourishingtheir light bushy tails. We had excellent opportunities of getting ashot at them, and Harry, who was not so thoughtful as his brother,wished very much to try his skill; but I forbade this, telling him thatwe could not afford to throw away our ammunition on such small game.Indeed, this was a thought that frequently entered my mind, and made meanxious about what we should do when our ammunition became exhausted. Icautioned both my boys, therefore, not to spend a single shot on anyanimal smaller than elk or deer, and they promised to obey me.

  "When we had gone about a mile up-stream, we saw that the trees grewthinner as we advanced, and then opened into small glades, or spacescovered with herbage and flowers, usually called `openings.' This,surely, was the very place to find deer--much more likely than in thethick woods, where these animals are in more danger from the cougar andcarcajou, that occasionally drop upon them from the trees. We had notgone far among these openings, before we saw fresh tracks. They weremore like the tracks of a goat than those of a deer, except that theywere much larger. They were nearly as large as the tracks of the elk,but we knew they were not these.

  "We advanced with great caution, keeping in the underwood as much aspossible. At length we saw that there was a large glade before us, muchlarger than any we had yet passed. We could tell this by the wide clearspaces that appeared through the trees. We stole silently forward tothe edge of this glade, and, to our great satisfaction, saw a herd ofdeer feeding quietly out upon the open ground.

  "`Papa, they are not deer,' said Frank, as we first came in sight ofthem. `See! who ever heard of deer with such ears as those? I declarethey are as long as a mule's!'

  "`Yes,' added Harry; `and who ever heard of deer with black-tails?'

  "I confess I was myself puzzled for a while. The animals before us werecertainly deer, as their long slender legs and great branched antlerstestified; but they were very different from the common kind--anddifferent, too, from the elk. They were much larger than the red orfallow-deer, though not unlike them in shape and colour. But that whichwas strange, as my boys had at once noticed, was the peculiarity oftheir ears and tails. The former were quite as long as the ears of amule, and reached more that half-way to the tops of their antlers.Their tails, again, were short and bushy, of a whitish colourunderneath, but on the top and above as black as the wing of a crow.There were also some black hairs upon their backs, and a black stripealong the neck and shoulders, while their noses on each side were of apale ashy colour--all of which marks gave them a very differentappearance from the Virginian or English deer.

  "I have said that I was at first puzzled; but I soon recollected havingheard of these animals, although they are but little known tonaturalists. They could be no other than the `black-tailed deer' of theRocky Mountains--the _cervus macrotis_ described by the naturalist Say.This was evident, both from their size, the great length of their ears--but more than all from the colour of their tails, from which lastcircumstance their common name has been given them by the hunters andtrappers.

  "We did not stop long to examine them. We were too anxious to have ashot at them; but how were we to get near enough? There were seven ofthem in the herd; but they were quite out in the middle of the glade,and that was more than three hundred yards wide. The nearest of theseven was beyond the range even of my long rifle. What, then, was bestto be done?

  "After thinking about this for a moment, I saw that an open passage ledout of the glade through the trees on the other side. It was a wideavenue leading into some other glade; and I knew that the deer whenstartled would be most likely to make off in that direction. Idetermined, therefore, to creep round to the other side, and interceptthem as they attempted to run through. Frank was to remain where wefirst saw them, while Harry would go half-way along with me, and thentake his stand behind a tree. We should thus enclose the deer in a sortof triangle, and some one of us would be sure of getting them withinrange before they could escape.

  "I had scarcely got to the edge of the opening when I saw that the herdwas browsing in towards Frank. They were every moment getting closerand closer to him, and I watched eagerly for the shot. I knew he wouldnot fire until they were very near, as I had cautioned him not to do so,on account of the smallness of his rifle. Presently I saw the stream ofsmoke and fire issuing from the leaves; then followed the sharp crack,and then the yelping of our dogs as they broke forward. At the sametime one of the deer was seen to spring upward and fall dead in itstracks. The others wheeled and ran, first one way and then another, intheir confusion; until, after doubling several times, they made towardsthe opening where I stood. In their flight, however, they had gone tooclose to Harry, and as they were running past his stand, the tiny crackof a rifle was heard among the bushes; and another of the black-tailsrolled over on the plain.

  "It was now my turn; and I prepared myself to make the best shot I couldor be beaten by my own boys. So as they came up I let drive at them, tomy mortification missing them every one--as I thought at the moment. Itsoon appeared, however, that I was mistaken in this. Castor and Polluxswept past upon the heels of the herd; and before they had disappearedout of the long avenue, I saw the dogs spring upon the haunches of onethat lagged behind, and drag him to the ground. I ran to theirassistance, and seizing the wounded animal by one of its antlers, soonput an end to it with my knife. I had wounded it in the flank; and thathad enabled the mastiffs to overtake it, which they could not have doneotherwise, as its companions were at the time several hundred yardsahead of it. We all now came together, exulting in the fine fortune wehad met with, for we had made a regular _battue_ of it. We were gladthat none of us had missed, and that we had succeeded in obtaining somuch good meat, for we were not slaughtering these beautiful creaturesout of wanton sport, but from the necessity of procuring food. Eachcongratulated the others upon their good shooting, and said nothing ofhis own--although it was plain that all three of us were proud of ourrespective shots. To do justice, however, that of Harry was decidedlythe best. He had knocked his one over while on the run--no easy matterwith these black-tails, who do not gallop regularly as other deer, butbound forward, lifting all their feet together, as yo
u will sometimessee sheep do. This mode of running is one of the peculiarities of theirspecies--which, perhaps, more than any other thing, distinguishes themfrom the common deer.

  "After carefully wiping out, and then reloading, our rifles, we restedthem against the trees, and set to work to skin our game.

  "While engaged in this operation, Harry complained of thirst. Indeed,we were all thirsty as well, for the sun was hot, and we had walked agood distance. We could not be far from the stream, although we werenot sure of its direction; and Harry, taking the tin cup which we hadbrought with us, set out to find it, promising soon to return with waterfor our relief. He had only left us but a short while, when we heardhim calling back through the trees; and, thinking that some animal mighthave attacked him, Frank and I seized our rifles, and ran after him. Oncoming up, we were surprised to find him standing quietly on the bank ofa crystal rivulet, holding the cup=full of water in his hand.

  "`Why did you bring us away?' asked Frank.

  "`Taste this,' replied he; `here's a pickle!'

  "`Oh, papa!' cried Frank, after applying the cup to his lips; `salt asbrine, I declare.'

  "`Salt you may say,' continued his brother; `the sea itself is not sosalt--taste it, papa!'

  "I did as I was desired; and, to my delight, I found that the water ofthe rivulet was, what Frank had alleged, `salt as brine.' I say to mydelight, for I was greatly pleased at this discovery. The boys couldnot understand this, as they, being now very thirsty, would much ratherhave met with a cup of fresh, than a whole river of salt water. I soonpointed out to them the importance of what we had found. We hadhitherto been in great need of salt--for we had not a single grain ofit--and had felt the want ever since our arrival in the valley. Onlythey who cannot get salt, can understand what a terrible thing it is tobe without this homely, but necessary article.

  "The flesh of our elk, which for many days past we lived upon, hadproved quite insipid for want of salt; and we had not been able to makea soup that was in any way palatable. Now, however, we should have asmuch as we desired; and I explained to my companions, that by simplyboiling this water in our kettle, we should obtain the very thing we somuch stood in need of. This, as they saw, would be great news for mammaon our return; and the prospect of making her happy, by imparting theinformation, rendered all of us impatient to get back. We did not staya moment by the salt stream--which was a very small rivulet of bluewater, and evidently ran from some spring that bubbled up in the valley.Not far below us, we saw where it emptied itself into the main streamof fresh water; and, keeping down to the latter, we quenched our thirst,and then went back to our work.

  "We made all the haste we could; and our three black-tails were soonskinned, quartered, and hung upon the trees--so as to be out of reach ofthe wolves while we should be gone. We then shouldered our rifles, andhurried back to the house."